Library Genesis的Wikipedia条目中的介绍是：

Library Genesis or LibGen is a search engine for articles and books on various topics,which allows free access to content that is otherwise  or not digitized elsewhere. Among others it carries PDFs of content from 's  web-portal.

In 2015, the website became involved in a legal case when Elsevier accused it of providing  access to articles and books. LibGen is reported to be registered in both Russia and Amsterdam, making it unclear which legislation applies, and whether defendants will show up in a United States court hearing. LibGen is blocked by a number of  in the United Kingdom, but such -based blocks are claimed to do little to deter access. In late October 2015, a  district court ordered LibGen to shut down and to suspend use of the domain name (libgen.org), but the site is accessible through alternate domains.

As of July 2016, the database contains more than 52 million articles from about 50,000 publications.

1. 用户上传
2. 通过已付费账号从付费数据库下载的数据
3. Sci-Hub的资源：SCI-HUB与Library Genesis协同工作：当用户请求论文的时，首先数据库中查找，找到直接下载，找不到使用付费账号从付费数据库中下载，首先同步到Library Genesis，然后提供给用户下载

4. hacker communities

1. 直接下载
2. BT
3. DC++
4. Ed2K
5. *Usenet